Page 132 of I'm Not Your Pet

I nodded, my head swimming with worry.

“How do you…know all of this? Do you work here?”

Briar huffed out a long suffering sigh. It sounded like he hit the dude again. And then again. And then again. “He knows because he’s a pirate. It’s his job.”

“He’s a…” my head was spinning. “What?”

“Independent space traveler,” Growly corrected, obviously not pleased by the term “pirate.”

“Yeah, anindependent spacetraveler that boards ships and steals shit,” Briar snarked. “Which makes you apirate.” They had both moved close enough that when Briar’s fingers found mine and he gave my hand a tight squeeze, I wasn’t surprised.

“So, you’re not…”

“With the other pirates? No.” Beast huffed in annoyance, syrupy tendrils reached out, wrapping around Briar’s wrist and my hand by extension. He growled unhappily, retreating when he realized Briar wasn’t about to let go of me. “I am here for one human, and one human only.”

“Yeah well, I’m not going with you, dipshit.”

“You said these were not your people.” Growly sounded adorably confused.

“They’re not.” Briar’s hand tightened around mine. “ButHugois. And I’m not fucking leaving him in a ship full of assholes with no protection.”

The raw loyalty in Briar’s voice shocked me for a moment. I hadn’t realized he cared so much about me. Maybe I should have. As grouchy as he was, he very rarely left my side, always guarding me—even going so far as to try and protect me from my own mate.

“Youcannot protect,” I could literally hear Growly’s eyeroll. “You aresmall. Tiny wings. Big temper. No claws. No weapons.” I could feel the Sahrk’s eyes running over me even in the dark. “Your friend is worse. He is somehowsmaller. More pathetic. You will both fail. You will die.”

He was right.

He was right and it was terrifying.

Except—

Except—shit. Maybe he wasn’t right. Maybe wedidhave weapons. Unorthodox ones. But…my gaze slid toward the back wall and the funnel stuck inside the barrel Ushuu had been filling when the lights went out. Briar and I were still halfway inside our hazmat suits, for god’s sake.

And that shit could…fuck.

That shit could probably kill someone, couldn’t it?

It was the reason Ushuu had been so careful with it—and us.

“We are leaving,” Growly reiterated as a plan began to form inside my mind.

Chemicals were dangerous.

I may not be able to incapacitate most of the species I’d met, but I’d taken Roark to his knees. I could do the same. Not many creatures were his size—and if I could get them on the ground, I could pour the fuel on them, couldn’t I?

If they didn’t see me coming…

Yes.

Roark had said the element of surprise was my greatest strength.

No one would look at me and expect me to be capable of this. Hell, I never would’ve thought myself capable. But with adrenaline running in my veins—with Roark’s voice in my head giving me strength—with the fear I could feel, thick in the air—I…

Yes.

I could do this.

I could.

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